Page. SECTION 760. Forfeitures,. 278 761. Witness' testimony may be read against him on prosecution for perjury, ..... 278 762. Certain terms defined, in the senses in which they are used in this 278 281 784. Proceedings to impeach or remove officers and others, preserved,.. special proceedings preserved, 786. Certain statutes specified as continuing in force, 281 282 The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS. SECTION 1. Title of Code. 2. Its effect. 3. "Crime," and "Public offense," defined. 4. Crimes, how divided. 5. Felony defined. 6. Misdemeanor. 7. Objects of the Penal Code. 8. Conviction must precede punishment. 9. Jury are to find degree of crime. 10. Construction of the Penal Code. 11. Of sections declaring crimes punishable. 12. Punishments, how determined. 13. Punishment of felonies. 14. Of misdemeanors. SECTION 1. This act shall be known as the PENAL Title of CODE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Code. Its effect. $2. No act or omission subsequent to the day upon which this Code shall take effect as a law, shall be deemed criminal or punishable, except as prescribed or authorized by this Code, or by some of the statutes which it specifies as continuing in force. Any act or neglect committed prior to that day may be inquired of, prosecuted and punished in the same manner as if this Code had not been passed. Abolition of Common Law Offenses.-This section abolishes all common law offenses. Such appears to have been clearly the intention of the legislature. The act appointing the commissioners prescribes that "the Penal Code must define all the crimes for which persons can be punished." Effect of the Code upon Anterior Offenses. In so far as this Code declares acts criminal which heretofore have not been so regarded, or increases the severity or changes the kind of punishment inflicted for a crime defined by our former laws, the familiar provision of the Federal Constitution prohibiting ex post facto laws, forbids that it be made applicable to acts committed before it takes effect. (U. S. Const., art. 1, § 10, sub. 1; Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall., 386; Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cr. 87, 138.) In so far as it diminishes the severity of the punishment, by prescribing a less amount or duration of penalty, of the same kind with that inflicted under the former law, there may be no constitutional reason to prevent its being made applicable to all offenses, irrespective of the date of commission. (Hartung v. People, 22 N. Y., 95; Commonwealth v. Mott, 21 Pick., 492; Keene v. State, 3 Chandl., 109.) Ameliorations of punishment introduced by statute are often expressly extended to prior offenses. (See 2 Rev. Stat., 779, § 6; Laws of 1861, ch. 303, § 3; Mass. Gen. Stat., 880, § 5; Rev. Stat. of Wisc., 757, § 3.) No natural right arises, however, in behalf of an offender, to claim the benefit of a subsequent statute mitigating the penalty for offenses like his own; though clemency readily awards it to him. Convenience and simplicity in the administration of penal justice should control upon this point. The commissioners are of opinion that any attempt by general words to render such mitigations of punishment as are introduced by the Code, applicable to antecedent offenses, is calculated to raise nice and embarrassing questions as to whether a given modification is a mitigation or not. They observe that it has been held that the judiciary cannot determine whether a provision that no person convicted of a capital offense shall be executed until after a year's confinement, nor then Should it be thought desirable to give those whose "Crime" and ** S 3. A crime or public offense is an act or omission forbidden by law, and to which is annexed, upon con- lic offense," viction, either of the following punishments: 1. Death; 2. Imprisonment; 3. Fine; 4. Removal from office; or, 5. Disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under this state. meanor Rep. Code Cr. Pro., 2, § 3. "misde The use of the terms "crime," "felony," "A crime, or misdemeanor," says Blackstone, "is an pub defined. |